OPINION

There is a saying that five years is a very short time in politics. However, in the case of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, five years has witnessed epochal changes. The party which was found on the foundations of a public movement for probity in public life and with a demand to appoint an ombudsman to political executive accountable, is today fighting pitched battle to thwart all moves for probity.

Initially Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel had objected to this order that there is was no law stating that Speaker and MLAs to be asked to declare their assets before the Lokayukt. Speaker doesn’t come under the ambit of the Lokayukt but MLAs do come and they must file the required details to the Lokayukt.

The Lok Ayukta has asked all the members of Delhi Assembly to submit details of their assets. This order from the ombudsman is in harmony with the demands of the Lokpal Movement of 2011 led by anti-corruption leader Anna Hazare, with then social sector activist Arvind Kejriwal being his chief lieutenant and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia as the head of the volunteer force.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee doesn’t seem to be much enamoured by the what the newspapers in the national Capital have to say about a possible alliance between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Speaking at the rally of Opposition parties at her bastion in Kolkata last Saturday, Banerjee said, “Hum saath ladega aur Dilli mein saatho seat jitega (We shall fight together and win all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital).”

While the Trinamool Congress leader said this, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal heard her in rapt attention. Earlier during his own turn to address the rally, Kejriwal remained focused on spewing venom on the BJP. This was less than 24-hous after the AAP had declared in the national Capital that it would contest all seven seats in Delhi on its own blaming the Congress of being arrogant.

The local leadership in the three north Indian states of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, where Kejriwal insists on his party having a presence, are all against any idea of entering into an alliance with AAP, whose rise is rooted in running an anti-corruption campaign in the early part of this decade against the Congress governments both at the Centre and in the states.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is in the name changing spree these days, if the Uttar Pradesh government has changed name of Allahabad to Prayagraj without delving deep into the fact that the name Allahabad did not have Islamic connotation rather it was named as Illvas which became Allahabad with the passage of time. Ill was father/mother of King Pururva who is mentioned in Rig Veda. There are many names that have been changed.

Renaming Ross Island to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep, Neil Island as Shaheed Dweep and Havelock Island as Swaraj Dweep is another similar move disrespecting local sentiment. These islands were previously named after officers of the British Indian forces -- Brigadier James Neill, General Sir Henry Havelock and a marine surveyor, Daniel Ross and this attempt has been made to do away with colonial past. However, some of the colonial names are still abound like Hodsons Horse, Skinners Horse, Outram and Napier, etc and yet, it in no way diminishes their 'Indianness'.

There is no harm in recognising and celebrating freedom fighters like Subhas Chandra Bose that to in an attempt to popularise the unsung saga of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the freedom struggle. There are many freedom fighters who were sent to Kala Pani (Andaman and Nicobar) but selectively picking them will be termed as partisan and populism. Andaman and Nicobar Islands are shining outpost of India with immeasurable strategic possibilities that remains untapped. There are many islands that are uninhibited but security of them needs to be beefed up.

On Thursday, the Congress high command appointed veteran leader Sheila Dikshit as its Delhi unit president for the second time. The last time she was nominated to this post was more than two decades back in the summer of 1998.

 The situation for the party, however, is not very different from what it was then with the BJP on an ascendance and the minority voters harbouring a distrust for the Congress following the demolition of the Babri Masjid with PV Narasimha Rao at the helm as the Prime Minister. This had led to a rout of the party in the national Capital in the 1991, 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha polls, 1993 assembly polls and 1997 municipal polls.

The state leadership lay in tatters with factional satraps Har Kishan Lal Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, in addition to battling their own feuds, also contesting charges of pogrom of the Sikhs during the 1984 riots in the law courts. Today the situation may not be as abysmal but is somewhat similar.

Ajay Maken has resigned, for the second time in past six months, as the president of Delhi Congress. Former chief minister Sheila Dikshit is back in Delhi from France, having convalesced from a heart ailment. In the past few weeks she has expressed the view that she wasn’t averse to leading the party once again in the national Capital. This should be the ideal situation for passing the baton back to Dikshit.

However, there are forces within the Congress party who may not be very keen on having Dikshit back lest she become an impediment in their ‘Pan-India’ plans of alliance with the regional forces. The appointment of the next president of Delhi Congress is umbilically connected to the party’s strategy for the Lok Sabha polls in the summer of 2019. The next president of Delhi Congress who would have to bear the burden of leading or rejecting an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).    

Contrary to the general perception, Dikshit may not be very vocal about her reservations on having truck with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party but she is very focused of regaining “halcyon days” of the Congress in the national Capital, which can be easily interpreted as restoring her own lost legacy.